In the languages of my ancestors, for example, if someone was 14 years old, they would be “14 år gammal” in Swedish (14 years old) and “14 Jahre alt” in German (14 years old), but in Italian, they would say “ho 14 anni” (I have 14 years).
In my mother tongue, English, I specifically and annoyingly tell people how many trips I have taken around Sol. That number represents my age.
In Basque language we say “14 urte ditut” (literally “I am 14 years”). Some people say “14 urte dauzkat” (literally “I have 14 years”), probably due to Spanish language influence.
In Hungarian you would say “14 éves vagyok”
“vagyok” means “I am”
“éves” is “év” meaning “year” + “es” which is a suffix turning nouns into adjectives.
I’m from the North of England and we say “aye! t’was onna night most un’nartual, when good folk did pull down the shutters and bring their children reet close and 'uddle themselves away, for they couldn’t rightly say if they wus hearing the howling of t’wind, the shrieking orra newborn, or the wailin of the beast, in this very valley [x] years/moons ago” and I think that’s beautiful.
In Plattdeutsch, it’s Johr ik bün veerten Johr oold
വയസ്സ്(Vayassu), പ്രായം(Prayam) in Malayalam
വയസ്സ്/പ്രായം 15 ആയ ആൾ(15 vayassu/praayam aaya) -> Person aged 15
Not sure if the transliteration is phonetically correct. And it seems formal. Maybe someone else can provide a better reply
Spanish: Tengo catorce anos == I have fourteen buttholes
And this is why you shouldn’t skimp on your tildes.
Wait until you realize where the word verano comes from
que no mires!
It’s just <Number>살 for us. The way the age is counted is a bit different. If you were using the standard way of calculating the age, you add 만 in front of it.
A few years ago, iirc, the Korean government instructed people to stop using the traditional system and to use the international system instead. Has that had much of an effect in practice, or are people largely ignoring it? Or do you think it’s something that younger generations will pick up more over time while older people continue using the traditional system? (This last option being sort of what happened in Australia when we transitioned to metric through the '70s.)
Also, what happens to someone born on 1 January? Are they born du sal, and thus the youngest of their sal, or born han sal and remain han sal for a whole year?
Government docs use the international style for age, but in normal conversations people assume you are using traditional age unless otherwise specified.
Too socially prevalent. Most people know about this change, but they still use the old one. Anything official are now using the standard age, though.
Anyone born on Jan 1st stays one year old for the whole year since people gain age every time the year changes. This does mean that a person can be born on Dec 31st, and be two year old next day.
I suppose then, for any child born around 00:10 on 1 January, there might be some pressure to encourage the doctor to write the birth certificate as something more like 23:50 on 31 December? Because of the social prestige with being older?
Or maybe the opposite, since being physically older than your peers is correlated with better academic and sporting performance?
Ich bin 14 Jahre alt
мне 14 лет
In French it’s like in Italian, ‘j’ai quatorze ans’ (I have 14 years).
Sometimes people are saying their next age, ‘je vais sur mes quinze ans’ (I am going to my 15 years).
In my first language (English) a 14-year-old would day “I am 14 years old” which means “I am 14 years old”
In my distant second language (Spanish) they would say “tengo 14 años” which, like Italian, means “I have 14 years”
Don’t forget the common colloquial “I’m 14”.
“عمري ١٤ سنة” for Arabic, with your example.
(Pronounced ´umri arba´ ta´shar sana)
Aw i wanted to write that (i just learned it) 😄
😉 technically my romanization + version of it is a more regional-esque thing, so you could post another version with another dialect!
Age
In Hebrew you say “I am the child of X years”
אני בן\בת ארבע עשרה
Also the language is horrifically gendered. It’s not my first language, but I know a bit
